A sit down with a Chinese diplomat could be the beginning of a strong relationship between the city and the foreign consulate.
On Tuesday, Chinese Consul General Liu Fei made her first visit to Prince George to meet with community leaders.
Liu and her staff spent about 45 minutes meeting with acting mayor Dave Wilbur and councillors Cameron Stolz, Murry Krause, Albert Koehler and Garth Frizzell at city hall Tuesday morning.
Liu also met with representatives at the city's two post-secondary institutions and with the Initiatives Prince George staff. The consul-general and her staff were already in the area to tour Barkerville on Monday.
In the eight months since she's held the post, Wilbur said Liu has changed the focus of her office to be less Vancouver based and more inclusive of her entire territory of B.C. and the Yukon. Lui replaced Lian Shugen, who held the post for three years.
"She's out and about and wants to know more about us," Wilbur said, noting the consul general's familiarity with the area's resource-based economy. "It certainly was a genuine interest on their part that I picked up, wanting to know more about Prince George in particular and the region generally."
There wasn't anything specific on the agenda for their discussion, but the councillors used it as an opportunity to build a level of respect and talk about the potential for future investment or partnership projects.
"It was just a freewheeling conversation about what they were all about, what she hopes to achieve with the office she now holds and the opportunities that we had to look into that with her," Wilbur said.
